California Schemin’: On the red carpet with James McAvoy at Toronto International Film Festival 2025

In November 2024, James McAvoy started shooting his directorial debut California Schemin’ in and around Glasgow, which, not quite a year later, celebrated its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival.

The film re-creates the journey of real-life hip-hop duo Silibil N’ Brains, who were not taken seriously in the industry as artists from Scotland. As this seemed to change the minute they pretended to be American, their fabricated identities kept growing with their success – until the deception became impossible to contain.

McAvoy focuses the film on the friendship between the two lads. On the red carpet in Toronto, the cinematic icon shared how important it was for him to tell the story of people with a similar background to him, who also dared to dream. He spoke to us about filming the feature’s big climax at Barrowland Ballroom and making a genuine effort to make the set feel like an actual party for the 2000 extras in attendance.

Selina Sondermann

California Schemin’ does not have a release date yet.